Azara Effect Productions is Turning Two!

Another September rolls around, and we find our little company is now another year older. Like any fun ride, it was a bit bumpy at times, but we survived and year three is already looking exciting!

We started the year off with a launch of our first music video for the fantastic Matt Patershuk. The video for "Gold" even had an official launch party all the way up in Grande Prairie! I was in attendance, sort of, to introduce the video and mingle afterword: a mannequin, dressed up with a tablet duct-taped to the face was constructed, and I was live streamed from my house in Victoria. The future! We are excited for Matt as his album "Outside the Lights of Town" has been nominated for Country Album of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, to be held at the Breakout West Festival in Winnipeg.

Shortly after the video launch, we wrapped up a series of videos for the Canola Council of Canada including "Blackleg Disease, Canola and Bees and Disease Scouting". We are especially proud of how the Blackleg video finalized, given the challenges of the material that needed to be depicted – why do fungus lifecycles have to be so complicated?!

Next up was a fun video for the live painting competition, Paint Blank. 20 minutes is not a lot of time to paint a picture, but it was a fun event to film as the contestants are throwing paint - and caution - to the wind.

Somewhere along the way, I also squeezed in a new demo reel and gave the logo a bit of a spruce up.

The latest animation project I undertook was a short informational video for VidTime Online, a Victoria startup company.

Throughout all of this, I was also working with the wonderful fellas at Pulp Studios in Edmonton on several exciting projects.

A big thank you to all those who have helped Azara Effect Productions. I am reminded of the saying that "it takes a village to raise a child" well, I also think it can be said that it takes a village to raise a startup company.

Cobble Hill Fair!

We had a great time at this year's Cobble Hill Fair. I love looking at the old-timey machinery and technology. One amazing sight was this foot powered bow lathe.

The children's vegetable sculptures are also a favorite of mine. I used to make a pretty respectable car sculpture out of cucumber, carrots and beets when I was a kid and I love to see what kids are making now. This one is quite clever.

Voices

Filmmakers often talk about how sound is half of your film, meaning the quality of the audio track can propel or destroy the visuals. A great visual film will fall flat with weak or poor quality sound, but a rich audio track can support and invigorate an otherwise dull series of visuals. When both are vibrant, responsive, and dynamic, then the film really comes to life.

With my latest film about Blackleg disease in Canola, we decided to have only music and narration, with no additional sound effects. The video is heavy with information; meaning a subtle background score is all that would be needed, save for the intro, so that it doesn’t get too acoustically busy, which leaves a substantial burden on the shoulders of the narrator to carry half the film. 

Who could we find that would be right for delivering this message? To the internet!  We wanted the narrator to sound confident, compassionate, intelligent and articulate with the scientific lingo.  There are a plethora of choices when it comes to auditioning voice talent, as well as a broad range in prices.

Luckily, I stumbled upon Voices.com, which has an effective platform for finding talent with such qualities. In a short amount of time, I had narrowed the search to about ten narrators and decided to initiate a project on their site.  I was astonished to receive audition clips from the ten narrators, each with a price labelled, that same day.  It was interesting and revealing to hear the narrators read a segment from our script. What at first sounded like the perfect choice, based on their demo reel, was quickly ruled out when we (the producers and I) heard the audition. They were all good, but we had to choose one so we had to get picky. Too slow, too fast, too nasally, too sexy, too car-salesy, too dull.  I suppose I was also so picky because I am also the film editor and would be spending countless hours working with whoever’s voice we chose.  Within a few days, the full recording by the talented Alison Matthews was complete and ready to be cut into the film. The audio quality was excellent and when a pick-up was required, they were happy to oblige. Every step of the way the team at Voices.com was in communication with me to ensure I was getting what I needed and that I was satisfied with the results. I am pleased and appreciative of the product and treatment I received from Voices.com and will be sure to seek their help again for my next film. 

For post-production of our audio, we went to [Root]Chord Sound, which has done all the sound mixing for all of our films. The importance of a good sound mix can’t be overstated, as they take the raw audio materials and weave them into a clear and appealing track that can support its half of the film’s weight.

Scott Gillies

Director at Azara Effect Productions.

Matt Patershuk - GOLD

This summer we traveled to Alberta to shoot a music video for alt-country singer/songwriter Matt Patershuk and had a great time filming it. With the help of Greg Sekulic, "The Chuck Finlay 1", Matt's folks and Chris Tabbert we got some crackerjack footage.  Edmonton is beautiful in the summer and made for some nice backdrops for "the action".  We will be releasing the video on the web Jan. 25th but if you are in the Grande Prairie area you can attend a premiere party with a live music show by Matt. 

Poster design by Azara Effect Productions. Photo by Peter Patershuk.

Photo by Greg Sekulic

Photo by Scott Gillies